Booker’s Rye is a 13-year-old, cask strength, non-chill filtered rye whiskey that was laid down in 2003 by Booker Noe, the late Jim Beam Master Distiller. This was one of the last things Booker worked on before his passing in 2004 and comes from a mash bill that’s a lot higher in rye content than the traditional Jim Beam Rye which is a barely-legal 51% rye whiskey. On a side note, Fred followed in his Father’s footsteps and hand wrote the Booker’s Rye label.
Talking to Fred Noe about the mash bill there’s a bit of confusion about what exactly the mash bill is for the Booker’s Rye. When looking through Booker’s notes for experiments around this time they found two different mash bills listed.
One that has a rye content in the 70s and one that has the rye content in the 80s. So while they didn’t have the exact mash bill for Booker’s Rye available for us at the tasting they were able to say with confidence it’s over 70% rye, making this a truly unique offering from Jim Beam.
In addition to being a unique mash bill distilled by the late Booker, this special edition is limited and no, it’s not limited in the way that Diageo calls their Orphan Barrels limited; there won’t be 10s of thousands of bottles of this hanging out in the market.
They had just begun to bottle Booker’s Rye when we were there so they didn’t have a bottle count yet, but what we know is that Booker laid down less than 100 barrels split between his two favorite warehouses (D&E), some of the barrels were nearly empty from evaporation when dumped and Fred is bottling it all. There will be no Booker’s Rye Batch 2 and with that, it’s on to the Booker’s Rye review!
Booker’s Rye Info
Region: Kentucky, USA
Distiller: Jim Beam
Mashbill: 70%+ Rye, 30%- Corn and Malted Barley
Cask: New Charred Oak
Age: 13 Years 1 Month 12 Days
ABV: 68.1%
Cask Strength | Non-Chill Filtered | Natural Color
Batch:1
Price: $300
Booker’s Rye Review
EYE
Ruddy caramel
NOSE
There’s not mistaking this is a rye. A powerful complex ball of spice bowls out of the glass. Cinnamon, anise, nutmeg, pepper and dill followed by layers of oak, citrus, dark fruit, dark sweets, vanilla and a light bit of an almost pine-like herbal quality. Damn.
PALATE
Oak planks plop down first, laying the path for that complex ball of spice to come rolling down and is again followed by dark fruit, dark sweets and citrus peels. As it fades out and heads towards the finish it picks up a bit of waxy licorice and an herbal bergamot-like quality. Double damn.
FINISH
As long as a Kentucky summer and layered with notes of spice, oak, dried strawberries, dark sweets and a mild herbal character.
BALANCE, BODY & FEEL
Fantastic balance, full round body and a heavy oily feel. Booker’s Rye has some real weight to it.
OVERALL
Booker’s Rye is the rye whiskey that Jim Beam should be putting out on a regular basis. The higher rye mash bill combined with the longer aging and higher proof creates a stunner of a whiskey.
Across every sense, it’s rich and full – packing dense layers of sweet and rustic aromas and flavors into every sniff and sip. This is the kind of beautifully structured whiskey that rye lovers like myself search for and it all stemmed from a well-crafted experiment. It’s too bad Booker never got to see how it turned out.
I understand that it would be a large, long term, undertaking to make Booker’s Rye a new project for the distillery, but its a project I think they could undertake and do quite well within the future.
At the scale Jim Beam distills they definitely have the resources to undertake something like this and while they’re waiting for batches that could be labeled as Booker’s Rye to age they could always release some lower proofed younger (4ish years) releases along the way. Their volume might also help keep the price down a bit on future releases.
SCORE: 96/100 (A)
*Disclosure: I tasted this Booker’s Rye while on a press trip for the launch of the Booker’s Rye at the Jim Beam Distillery. The views, opinions, and tasting notes are 100% my own.
Booker’s Rye Review - Score Breakdown 300
Summary
Booker’s Rye is a unique and fantastic offering from the folks at Jim Beam
Overall
- Nose - 96
- Palate - 96
- Finish - 96
- Balance, Body & Feel - 96
User Review
( votes)( reviews)
I’d love to get a bottle of Booker’s Rye. I tried it once at a restaurant years ago. Absolutely loved it- truly one of a kind!
Awesome thanks for the tip. I’ll keep and eye out!
Good luck, and if you find anything in your own searching I’d love to know!
Hi, I am just now coming across this because I had the pleasure of trying Bookers rye a few months ago and I cannot get the taste out of my head! Have you found anything that can even come close to this? I have been scouring the shelves and reviews to find anything that will get me close to that taste and I’ve come up empty handed. Any suggestion would be appreciated. Cheers!
I know the curse all too well. This is unlike any other rye out there. The two I can recommend that come somewhat close are Pikesville Rye (best mass market) and the new Four Gate rye (limited release, unfortunately). Outside of those two I have yet to find anything that even scratches it.
I couldnt find this for 300 when it came out,now I see its around 800 on the secondary market.i got a feeling if I don’t move on a bottle soon the price will double and I will feel like a idiot.i don’t want to support secondary pricing but what’s a guy to do.
That is the modern whiskey conundrum unfortunately :/
Interesting review! Needless to say, I have never seen this on the shelf! So is your final rating 96 (the photo) or 94.5 (the dial at the bottom)? Also, is the 68.1% ABV a typo? Rye whisky per the TTB is supposed to go into the barrel at no more than 62.5% ABV. Thanks for any reply, Josh!–Matt
Hi Matt,
The photo is always the correct one, the dial had a typo. Thanks for catching. The ABV is not a typo, as bourbon ages it looses water faster than it does alcohol which concentrates the alcohol. That’s why you end up with bourbons that are 130 – 144+ proof.
Cheers!
Informative, thanks! Yet… I have several Four Roses cask bourbons that are in the mid-50s after 10, 11 years. In that case, what is happening? Wouldn’t they be losing water faster than alcohol? It’s clear they’re not putting the spirit into the barrel at 50% ABV (I think?). Thanks!
It also depends on where it’s placed in the warehouse and how much heat it gets, warehouse conditions, etc. A lot of factors go into it. The Russell’s 98 is cask strength and it’s only 40 something % due to being in a stone warehouse next to a river which more closely mimics Scotland.
Who will ever see it or be able to afford it. A Unicorn of Biblical proportion. May as well be reviewing Red Hook Rye…sigh.
A couple thousand bottles will make it to the market, but you’re not wrong. It’ll be a rare release indeed, but I like to review those when I can for those who do get them. I definitley understand it won’t be everyone and if I ever got my hands on a bottle of Redhook I’d review that too :)